"No active members"

Gidday! Serving in the Katherine Branch Northern Territory will be
Elder Tanner and his new companion Elder Acker! WOOOO!
Headed up north to be with one of my best friends on the mission
(we were in the MTC together) He's from Utah and has a love for Taylor Swift.

So Katherine is at the top of the country but below Darwin.
I took a 4 hour flight from Adelaide to get to Darwin then it was a 3 hour drive to get to
Katherine.
We're an outlying area which means that we're 3 hours away from any other missionaries.
And we also run the branch because we're the only active Melchezdiek Priesthood
 holders in the area. We have no active members. And pretty much everyone here is
aboriginal. Everywhere you look you see them and their all always drunk
walking around like zombies. It's pretty interesting.
I think this area really is going to humble me.

Last Sunday we had 5 people come to church. Elder Tanner and I both spoke,
and I presided and he conducted so it was all run by us.
Sometimes I wonder why I'm here because there really is nothing
here but I guess there is a reason. I look forward to the upcoming
experiences and I hope and pray that we can get something going in this area.
 Time to build the branch.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Love Elder Acker

Leaving Trott Park

Hey everyone! We received Transfer News this morning and I am staying...
in Trott Park for one more 

night then being transferred tomorrow! Honestly don't really know how to
feel but I know 

there's an adventure ahead. I don't know where I'm going yet but I will let you
know next week!

Tuesday Nov 11, 2014- Started off the day by doing some weeding for Neville
and Wendy. They are non members, aren't interested in the gospel but love
to have missionaries over. We then started teaching an 8 year old in our ward
who is getting baptized next week. She is so excited! Her name is Sky Glass.
Its so awesome to see little ones with joy in their eyes leading up to
their baptism.

Wednesday Nov 12, 2014- Had trade off with Elder Anton from Sydney,
 it was the hottest day ever.We went like 5 times to McDonald's to get drinks
because we we're dried out the whole day. 

Thursday Nov 13, 2014- We had Weekly Planning today and we both
felt the sprit strongly as we were working out what we needed to do to improve
the area and the biggest thing that we got out of it was FORGET YOURSELF.
We need to stop thinking of ourselves and focus on serving the people 

around us. We had a lesson with a old couple from Holland that night
named Peter and Netti, their the sweetest couple and the lesson went really
well even though they rejected the invitation to be baptized but we still
plan on visiting them this next week (well not me). 

Friday Nov 15, 2014- This was a day full of walking in the rain. Such a blast!
And we found a new investigator named Hannah! She just graduated from
High School and was baptized last year into the Baptist Church and she's really
keen on learning about our church! It's so great to see young adults who live in
the world but not of the world who live by their faith. We then went to go play ball
with the bishopric which was sweet. The bishopric is all youngish guys so they could
run with us. It was so fun to be able to do that. 

That was basically my week this week! I'll talk to you all next week,
in my new area!

Love, Elder Acker

A nice tribute to his dad

Hi everyone! How are you all?!

What a week....

Start off by saying that I was dead sick with a fever half of the week, which was rubbish. It's no fun to be sick! But I'm feeling alot better now, thank you for all your prayers in my behalf :) It was kinda special though to have the time to ponder as I was sick in bed for 3 days. You never really get that time to ponder things when your missionary because your always running but that was definitely a good time to ponder all the many blessings my Heavenly Father has given to me. I'm so thankful for this mission and this gospel. It brings me so much happiness and purpose to my life. I want everyone to feel that so please if you feel like you need to find truth, happiness, light in your life, LIVE THE GOSPEL! Another thing I was able to ponder while I was sick in bed was apprecaite, love, and gratefullness for my Father... on earth! My dad is my best friend and he always will be. I have lived my whole life looking up to him and his example. It brings me tears thinking about my dad and his strength and faith in the gospel. I kept thinking of the hours on hours of pain he must've felt, but never showed... I pictured him in bed for days and days and yet he never complained.... My dad is a hero everyone. There's nothing wrong with righteous pride. My family is my life... FOR ETERNITY! WHAT A BLESSING! We can live with our families forever! I know this is true because I have felt the confirming witness of the spirit of God that it is. You all can feel that same witness too. Just ask God :)

Thursday Oct 30, 2014- This was our first full day proselytning during the week, it was good to get out working! Not much happened besides the fact that we met a man named Peter who was enjoying the sunset while drinking his wine and he let us inside his hokme. He was drunk but agreed to let us come back.

Friday Oct 31, 2014- HAPPY HALLOWEEN! As Elder Dass and I were roaming the streets of Adelaide, we saw few trick or treaters compared to America. It was still fun though to see some kids out there. That day we went to go see a less active family named the Dorn's. I used to visit them every week at the start of my mission but then they asked if we don't come back. But this week I really felt impressed to go see them and they were lovely! We got to catch up on things and they seemed really happy and friendly.

Saturday Nov 2, 2014- Day full of service. Helped the Watts move then had Hungry Jacks all together.

Sunday Nov 3, 2014- We had a great testimony meeting today, it was really special because everyone was testifying and showing appreciation for the missionaries around the world. We just felt grateful that the members in our ward love us as much as we love them. Elder Dass and I then had the chance to teach combined Elders Quorom on missionary work and it went really well!

Thats about it for the week, hope this next week goes well for you all! Elder Dass and I will be trying to find people to teach all week so please pray that people of Trott Park may be prepared!

Love you all!

Elder Acker

Another great week!

Good Morning Everyone! I hope everything is going well, it's been a great week here in Trott Park!

Tuesday Oct 14, 2014- We had Zone Training today and honestly everyone believes it was the best training we've all had on our missions! Usually trainings are given to improve our teaching skills but this training was all centered on pure testimony of God. We do "real" plays all the time on the mission where we role play/practice teaching in companionship. Me and Elder Dass role played with two Sister Missionaries and it was amazing. Our purpose was to not really blast with information but to teach how God is Our Loving Heavenly Father solely from bearing personal testimonies. We all we're doing this role play in this room and pretty soon enough the tears flowed. there was such a spirit in that room as we all testified of the Love and relationship we all have with our Father in Heaven. You know, I feel the spirit in a lot of different ways but during this role play, I actually felt that "burning in my bosom", an actual burning sensation in my chest, it felt like my whole being wasn't able to handle that wonderful feeling and yet I can't explain a better feeling in the world. I know God lives. We can all Know. Just talk to him. After the training we just had to go to Maccas (McDonald's) which is always fun. We then went to go do service for the Watts and then they fed us Domino's.

Friday Oct 17, 2014- We had lunch with Sister Chambers today, she fed us fish and chips! I've grown to love fish and chips haha. Sister Chambers is Bishop Chambers mother and she is literally like my grandma on the mission. She is always checking in on us, always sowing our ripped clothes, always feeding us, and always loving us. She's so great. We went finding after that and this day was quiet possibly one of the rudest people days I've had on my mission. People were just so rude! I don't get it sometimes how people can be so nasty but I guess Satan just really doesn't want us out here but when we have God behind us, who can stand against us? We were pretty upset that no one would talk to us so we said a prayer to find someone to help and as soon as we said the prayer we walked over to guys moving wood named Jim, he is from Czech Republic and he was so happy to see that we wanted to help. We moved the wood for him and after we finished he got teary eyed and said, "My whole life I have never ever had any stranger just come up and help me, I feel touched, thank you." I know that God was testing our faith with those rude people to see if he could trust us to walk in the path of Jim. He agreed to a return appointment so hopefully we see him next week!

Saturday Oct 18, 2014- We went to a former investigator named Craig today to introduce him to Elder Dass. Every time he has someone new over he just has to show them his "toys". So he went on to show us his personal theater which was sweet, his vintage car, and his knife collection, real good guy, hopefully someday he will decide to take the lessons. We went to go visit a few families that day just to get Elder Dass acquainted with the members which was great! We then had a lesson with David, he is still going off on which drugs are allowed because he's not willing to live the Word of Wisdom. Then later that night at about 2:30 AM he started leaving like 15 voice mails just chewing us out on a bunch of rubbish. That was the last straw. DROPPED.

Sunday Oct 19, 2014- Great news! We found a family! Ronnie and Mellisa Matthews who are both from New Zealand and have 5 kids. We met Ronnie a few weeks ago refurbishing a roof and we got to see them yesterday and taught them about the Book of Mormon and their more than happy to read and pray about it. Their Jehovah's Witness so we'll see how it all ends up but it's looking good so far.

That's it for this week. I love you all!

Elder Acker

Testimony

Hello Everyone! I hope everyone enjoyed General Conference this past weekend! I know I sure did! So many inspiring thoughts and revelations given from these Prophets and Apostles. let's all strive our best to become more and more like our Savior Jesus Christ everyday. Always look for ways to improve, and apply all the things these inspired Men of God share to us. If you haven't seen these talks yet visit "LDS.org". I KNOW THAT THESE MEN ARE CALLED OF GOD AND THAT WE DO INDEED HAVE A PROPHET OF GOD ON THE EARTH NAMED THOMAS S. MONSON.

Oct 8, 2014- First day with my new companion, Elder Dass, he is a crack up! We definitely are having fun together and I definitely can see miracles happen in the Trott Park area this transfer! We had dinner with the Robbins family that night and they fed us tater tot casserole. Bit weird haha. But it's always so great to go their house because they are all return missionaries. The parents, the daughter, the daughters fiance, and the brother. We had some pretty good conversations on how we can find people to teach so that was pretty inspiring! We then had a lesson with Andrew Shore that night and we just read the Book of Mormon with him.

Oct 9, 2014- District Meeting was today and Elder Dass gave the training for the first time as a District Leader. He did great! It was pretty different at first in District Meeting because Eder Tau and Sister Christensen weren't there but I know that I've just gotta move on and be happy with my district now! After District meeting, we went with the Woodcroft Elders to a Chinese buffet, I was so full I almost died. We then later that night went home teaching with Brother Scott to see 3 widows, it was great to go out with him that night and to build better relationships with the members.

Oct 10, 2014- We started off the morning by going to Sister Chambers house to get all the Less Active info we can, we plan to smash finding through the less actives this transfer. So Excited! We then went to go see David, our investigator who is on house arrest, he asked us to go get money at the ATM for him so we did and we soon found out that he was using that money to snatch drugs from his dealer. We felt a little bit irritated by that, but all we could do was show love to him. He is really struggling with mental issues and that day he was feeling really down because he says his life is going all down hill. The spirit prompted me to read D+C 121 to him to relate Joseph Smiths experience with struggle. That caught his attention and then we both bore powerful testimony of Christs atonement and how He knows exactly what David is going through, David's attention was then caught I have a testimony of bearing testimony frequently. I've had so many times in my mission where I've been bible bashed, ignored, not listened to, etc. but every single time those situations come about I bear my testimony and they stay quiet and listen. There is power in bearing personal, pure testimony. Anyone can intellectually question our church but no one can question a heartfelt testimony. We the did service for Sister Toker by mowing her lawn and it was an old fashioned awn mower without any motor or electricity, it was so great! We then had dinner at Bishops, we had Chile con Carne. Bishop is a real good ball player and he's been waiting for the chance to play me one and one, it's gotta happen soon :) We then had a lesson with Andrew that night and he just went on and on about things he has a ready told us a million times, I was pondering in my head what to say and the thing that came to my mind was to be bold with him so I asked him, "Andrew, do you feel like your benefiting from our message, or do you fee like your happy where you are?" He said "I like to fellowship with you" and I said "Are you with us to fellowship or are you here to learn?" That question caught him off guard but now we know that he's looking for "fellowship". Sometimes we just need to be bold to figure out what these people expect out of us.

Oct 11, 2014- We met a guy today named Ron who was putting up Christmas lights! For those that know me well enough, they know that I'm a freak when it comes to Christmas, I was so dang excited. He says that he does a big light show on his house so I'm excited to see once it's all up!

Thats all that has happened this week, oh and aso me and my companion are in the Stake Choir which is fun!

But I love all you so much, Stay Firm!

Elder Acker

Building testimony and missing friends

Hey Everyone!

Thought I would let you know first off that I'm staying in Trott Park again... another 6 weeks. And my new companion is Elder Dass from Sydney. He has a Fiji background and is a real cool Elder, a lot different than Elder Tau though, I miss that guy. We had District Meeting today and something just felt off. I think its because Elder Tau has left and also Sister Christensen who is by far my favorite Sister of all time. She just went home to Washington. With them two gone today, I felt pretty down actually. You build such great relationships on the mission and then you just get separated all of a sudden. But I know that I've just got to stay patient and adjust myself to the circumstances now.

Nothing much has happened since the last time I wrote but we had a beautiful testimony meeting on Sunday. It was Sister Christensen's last Sunday. Everyone has always told me that they have had experiences where their sitting in sacrament meeting and their heart starts pounding and they get this feeling like they HAVE to get up and speak. I've never felt that before until that Sunday. I just had to get up there. So I got up there and bore my testimony, and showed my appreciation for the members and missionaries in my ward, and I could not hold back my tears. I LOVE these people and I don't want to leave them.

Me and Elder Dass started the Transfer today so I hope and pray it will go well. Please Pray that me and Elder Dass may be effective instruments in the Lord's hands.. we need it.

I Love you all and I'll talk to you Monday :)

Elder Acker

The work goes on...

Hello everyone! Sorry for not emailing last week, its been a hectic 2 weeks, very very busy! Transfers are this Tuesday so I don't know if I'll be staying in Trott Park or not but I'll officially be here for half a year, crazy! 

I'll run you through the week to catch you all up with whats going on here in Adelaide

First off being that we 5 investigators at the moment. George, Andrew, David, Jim, and Mona.

George is a single man in about his 60's. He is a Seventh Day Adventist and he just talks our ear off, and he has a hard time focusing, we gave him a Book of Mormon but every time we ask him a question he always goes off on something and doesn't even answer our question. Like one time we asked him how he think God is going to answer his prayers and he started talking about American Presidents. But he's reading the Book of Mormon so that's good.

Andrew is a 60 year old man whose wife is a member of the church but she is in a nursing home so he is living on his own. He's come to church the past 6 weeks but still struggles with doctrine.

David is in his 40's and is meeting with us every week but he's always on drugs when we teach him :/ but he's been coming to church the past 3 weeks.

Jim and Mona are from Egypt, are Catholic and have a hard time accepting a modern day Prophet.

So here is our teaching pool so whenever I say their name you'll know who they are :)

Sep 19- We went to Davids house to teach him and when we knocked at the door his wife came to the door and said that he was arrested. He's gotten in trouble with the law a lot so it came down on him again. We helped his wife by cleaning the walls from all his drunk fits resulting in alcohol thrown at walls and smashed furniture and walls.

Sep 20- Had a ward activity doing service at a local primary school and Andrew came, he's really fellow shipping with the ward.

Sep 26- Had a trade off with Elder Orr from Canada in Victor Harbor, a beautiful area.

Sep 30- Had a trade off with Elder Beard from Utah in Hackham West, the ghetto of Adelaide, talked to quite a bit of drugged up people.

Oct 1- Did some service for Sister White in our ward by removing roots and and building rock walls around her garden, she then gave us a roasted chicken which was great! We then went to go see a brother in our ward named Brother Scott, he knows Andrew a bit and we were quites surprised about what he showed us, heaps of newspaper articles with Andrews face on it showing that he has been on the news for being sent to prison for some pretty bad things. I won't go into details because I feel like its quite inappropriate. But ya 2 investigators I have are convicts....

Love you all and I'll talk to you all on Monday.

Elder Acker